"We got lucky with" second place at Zandvoort, admits Verstappen

Despite having finished second at Sunday's Dutch Grand Prix, four-time world champion Max Verstappen has admitted that he got "lucky" with Lando Norris' retirement which allowed him to finish a position higher than he would have been able to given his RB21's race pace.

Red Bull gambled at the start by sending both Max Verstappen and Yuki Tsunoda on Pirelli's soft tyres into the 72-lap race. The grip advantage and a brilliant manoeuvre at Turn 3 enabled the Dutchman to overtake Lando Norris on the opening lap.

However, the McLaren driver managed to fight back later on as Verstappen started to struggle with tyre wear. However, once he settled into his pace, he was running comfortably in third. When Norris was forced to retire in the closing stages of the race, Verstappen inherited second place.

His team-mate Yuki Tsunoda had an eventful race. The Japanese started from P12 on the grid, but managed to capitalize on the retirement of Norris, Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc to move up the order.

He then also managed to cope with a throttle map issue late on to claim his first points since the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

Reflecting on his race in front of his home crowd, Verstappen said: “For me today, the highlight of the race was the first half when I was trying to get a spot and overtake. It was good to initially get the overtake but after Lando passed me again, I knew we had to manage our tyres and our pace for the rest of the race and keep everyone behind.

"The car did snap a bit on the first lap and I felt like I was doing a bit of drifting as there was a lot of sand on turn two. Qualifying was a big step forward for us, but today it was a bit more difficult as we were struggling on the long runs and it was more of a fight behind me.

Reflecting on the pecking order, Verstappen admitted he got "lucky" with Lando Norris' retirement which allowed him to finish a position higher than he would have been able to given his RB21's race pace.

"We got lucky with P2 as we couldn’t match the pace of the McLarens in the race and were struggling with the tyre behaviour and grip in the low speed.

"Despite this, I’m very happy for Isack to get his first podium: he had a fantastic weekend and good lap times and coming in as a rookie is always hard and he has done really well," concluded the Dutchman.